[Struggle, Protection]

  I jumped to Tranquility Two, where I’d left the five vandals frozen for the past hour.

  “Would anyone like to talk?”

  Silence.

  “That’s fine. We know where you started from tonight, I can only assume that your friends will gather there again tomorrow night. This time we’ll trap them in the building and we’ll have all of you. Of course you guys will never know that, because you’ll never leave Prison World. That’s the name for this world, I hope you didn’t have any family or friends in your old world. I’d hate for them to never know what happened to you. Float.”

  I floated them to two hundred feet above the ground and pushed them far apart so that they couldn’t talk. Then I jumped back to the tower, mine and Lu’s bedroom.

  Lu asked. “Anybody talk?”

  “Nope, I left them frozen and floated them two hundred feet in the air, and separated them so they have no one to talk to. I’ll bring them water in the morning, and try again.”

  “Maybe we can catch the rest of them tomorrow night. Rose.”

  “That would be ideal, I just wonder what could possibly cause such a large number of Wyldwood citizens to be so angry they’d do something like this.”

  ***

  I’d gotten a few hours sleep and I hope that this ends tonight with the capture of the rest of the vandals. I jumped to Tranquility Two and gave each of my prisoners some food and water and asked each if they’d like to talk. Warned each that if I died tonight my magic spell floating them two hundred feet in the air would end abruptly. I just wanted them to know that I hadn't killed them on purpose. It wasn’t true they’d continue to hang in the air until Sparky came to let them down just in case I really did get killed. I didn't want these five people on my conscience.

  I went to Enigmatic Parchments for a couple hours, Opal was busy sketching, I could see the occasional bright flash of magic erupt from her sketch pad.

  “Rose, how’s it going with the vandals? Any closer to catching the leader?”

  “No, Sparky, I have five of them hanging a couple hundred feet in the air, this is their second day and none will speak. Is there a spell that compels them to confess?”

  “Not a humane one no.”

  “That’s alright, last night Lu discovered their staging area, we hope to trap the rest tonight after they assemble, with any luck the leader will be among them.”

  “Good, go home and get some rest.”

  ***

  Finally an idea popped into my head, I went back to Tranquility Two with canteens filled with water. One by one I floated them down, this time I paid attention as I handed them the canteens. It was just as I suspected. I jumped back to the tower, I asked Doug for five books of any genre that male adults liked. Walked to the guard house and asked to see the prisoners.

  I handed each a book, again taking my time observing them. Yep every one of the ten. Had the same tell tale sign. Then I went to see Orin Underhill with a question and a progress update.

  ***

  Dogberry had left four guardspeople at the construction site; the rest came with us to surround the empty building, all well back hidden in the shadows. Then the hooded figures started to come, sometimes singly some times in pairs or trios. After ten minutes when no one arrived we approached the building from all sides. Dogberry had three guardspeople on each of the two doors, the rest of us covered the windows. The guard had blunted spears, which gave them a clear advantage over the club wielding vandals.

  Once the guard had the situation well in hand I started jumping my prison world vandals back one by one and we added them to their now weaponless brethren. No more than five minutes after we had the entire vandal gang assembled and seated on the floor of their meeting place. Councilman Underhill arrived.

  “I’ve been told by Rose Ryding, that you are not bad people. Rather hard working people that have done a bad thing. You’ve cost the town quite a lot, with many nights of overtime for the guard, effort from Rose and her friends for a charity that will enrich the town. If you’d just spoken to her or to me, we could have resolved this to everyone's satisfaction.”

  He continued. “Rose says that you are all carpenters that have been put out of work by my Gnome Construction Company. The gnome crews are amazing but there are many jobs that I wish my construction company could handle but the gnomes aren’t physically capable of, like mixing cement, raising walls and the list goes on the bottom line is this. Sign this admitting your part in the vandalism, work alongside the gnomes to complete the actor’s home for free, about two weeks of your labor for free. No charges will be filed, those workers who treat the gnomes with the respect they deserve as master craftspeople and work hard will have a paying job once our current project is completed. The harder you work on this job the faster you’ll be earning a salary. Now Rose would like to say something, before those wishing to sign, come forward.”

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  “I just wanted to say if you don’t know Madd Maggie's Magical Bakery and Teahouse doesn’t charge for regular food, unless you're a jerk to their staff or customers. It’s not a handout, it's magic, freely shared. Don’t let your kids or spouse go hungry before you start earning a salary again. I’m only an apprentice and don’t really make any money so I eat at Maggies everyday for free. It’s delicious. That’s all I wanted to say.”

  They all signed, they had nothing to lose and everything to gain, a couple of weeks of free labor would just about cover the cost of the materials that the vandals had destroyed. The town absorbed the overtime pay for the guards.

  “Ok Rose, how did you figure it out?”

  “You did Lu, you told me exactly how to figure it out.”

  “When, I don’t remember.”

  “Last week, you read to me that story “The Adventure of the Beryll Coronet".”

  “Rose, that story is about a bank robber. What does it have to do with a bunch of vandal carpenters?”

  “Yes it wasn’t the case it was a quote from Sherlock he said "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." We were looking at the case from our point of view, who would want to stop an actor's home from being built. Especially a large group of mostly men. Once I stopped looking at it from our point of view. Maybe Orin was the target or maybe the gnomes. Two reasons to attack the gnomes: they are racists and hate gnomes. But racists are usually pretty vocal about their feelings, so I ruled that theory out not impossible but highly unlikely. The other reason to attack the gnomes is because they are incredibly talented workers and put some people out of work. So I went to all of the people I had in Tranquility Two and the guardhouse jail and handed them things and observed their hands. All of them had thick calluses on their hands. Rules out racists, not all racists are workmen. So I was left with carpenters and went to talk to Orin.”

  “That’s amazing, Rose.”

  “It was all you reading me that story when you did. Why don’t you take me home and put me to bed and read me a story, or we could skip the story.”

  ***

  Later that night in bed.

  “Lu, I forgot to tell you, Enigmatic Parchments is sentient. It recommends books to people.”

  “Yeah I know, it’s suggested some excellent mysteries I’d never heard of before.”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me that it was sentient?”

  “I thought you knew, or I would have, sorry.”

  “That’s all right I have to ask you something else. It wants me to read spicy romances to you. When I said I couldn’t I’d be too embarrassed, it said I was vanilla.”

  “Gods Rose, that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I’d be too embarrassed to listen to you reading them. You could never be vanilla, you are the most interesting person I’ve ever met. What’s a bookstore know about sex anyways.”

  “I love you Lu.”

  “And I love you Rose.”

  ***

  Next day at Enigmatic Parchments

  “Rose, how about a nice book about plumbing.”

  “You are hilarious, I think about sex and you think about plumbing.”

  “I’m just doing as you asked, you said to suggest a random book if I noticed you thinking about sex.”

  “Yes, very good. I'm glad that you have done as I asked, I appreciate it. I also asked Lu about your advice that I read a spicy book to her.”

  “Good I can suggest several..”

  “Stop, she hated the idea.”

  “She did?”

  “Yes she did, she also told me I’m not vanilla, I’m the most interesting person she’s ever met. But then she said the smartest thing, "What does a bookstore know about sex.”

  “Well I guess I’d say you two are made for each other.”

  “Yes we are, we really really are.”